Defending champion Iga Swiatek advanced to the Last 16 of the Mutua Madrid Open with a statement win over Linda Noskova on Saturday, and is joined by Coco Gauff, Madison Keys, and Mirra Andreeva, but Emma Navarro, the 11th seed, fell to Donna Vekic in 3 sets.
Every match that [Noskova and I] played was really with high intensity, and really good quality. I knew it’s going to be a challenge, but I just kept being focused on myself. And we, kind of, know each other’s game. I’m happy that I was more solid at the end. Iga Świątek
The World No 2 made it 8 wins in a row in Madrid when she beat Noskova, 6-4 6-2, in 77 minutes to set up a meeting with Russia’s Diane Shnaider, the No 13 seed, who delivered a double-bagel to Latvia’s Anastasija Sevstova, 6-0 6-0, in 44 minutes.
Swiatek, still chasing her first title of the year, dominated her 20-year-old Czech opponent, who famously defeated her at the 2024 Australian Open.
“I’m happy with my focus and my attitude today,” Swiatek said on court, after her win. “It wasn’t easy at the beginning, but I’m happy I just kept calm, even when Linda broke me. It was a good match for sure.”
The 23-year-old from Poland had to dig deep to beat 19-year-old Alexandra Eala from the Philippines in her opener at the WTA 1000 in Spain, but this time she looked more fluent as she came through to face Shnaider for the first time.
Facing off against two of the rising youngsters who have troubled her of late, Swiatek looked more composed and focused against Noskova, secure in the knowledge that she had won all 3 of their WTA main-draw meetings since her demise in Australia. However, their last meetings on tour, at 2024 Miami and 2025 Doha, saw the Pole edge through a pair of two-and-a-half-hour battles, both gripping matches decided by 6-7 6-4 6-4 score-lines.
On their first contest on Swiatek’s favored clay, Noskova kept the first set close until the last moment, when the Pole won more of the decisive points to tip things her way and eased her way to the win.
Noskova deployed the powerful groundstrokes that have bothered Swiatek throughout their meetings, and even when the former World No 1 found deep returns to break for 4-3, she still had to stave off a break point in the next game before consolidating.
At 5-4, Swiatek battled back from 0-30 down to pick up set points, but Noskova ripped backhand winners on the defending champion’s first 2 chances, before the 2nd seed forced an error from the Czech to convert her 3rd set point to clinch a hard-fought one-set lead.
Once Swiatek broke Noskova in the opening game of the second, Saturday’s test became far more routine as the Pole closed out the affair with a perfect 4-for-4 break point conversion rate in the match.
For a place in the quarter-finals, Swiatek needs to get past the 21-year-old left-hander, Shnaider, who has dropped just 3 games in her 2 matches so far this week.
World No 4 Coco Gauff comfortably beat Ann Li to set up a Last 16 meeting with Belinda Bencic on Monday in Madrid
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Earlier in the day, the American duo of Coco Gauff and Madison Keys also made it through to the Last 16, with wins over compatriot Ann Li and Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya respectively.
Gauff, the 4th seed, lost the two opening games to Li, and then ran off 8 straight to coast to a 6-2 6-3 win in 66 minutes, equaling her best performance here in Madrid, achieved in 2022 and 2024.
“Overall, a solid performance,” Gauff said. “I was just trying to stay steady. She was throwing in some errors today. I felt like I didn’t have to do too much, except push her to play more defence.”
On Monday, Gauff will play Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic, who outlasted No 16 Beatriz Haddad Maia from Brazil, 6-3 4-6 7-6(2), after 3 hours, 3 minutes.
Bencic came from 1-4 down in the third set to improve her head-to-head record to 3-1 overall against the Brazilian, and notched up her 6th Top 20 win of 2025.
“It will be an interesting one,” Gauff said of Bencic. “I know she hits a little bit more flatter and I hit heavier, so I would like to think it favours me more. But, obviously, she beat me last time in Indian Wells [in March] and she’s always a tough opponent.”
Gauff, who turned 21 last month, has been remarkably consistent on the clay against players she is expected to beat.
After losing her first career clay-court WTA match to an opponent ranked outside the Top 50, Martina Trevisan, at Roland Garros 2020, Gauff has now won all 29 of those matches.
Australian Open champion Madison Keys got past Anna Kalinskaya in 2 tight sets and will meet Donna Vekic for a quarter-final spot at La Caja Magica
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Australian Open champion Keys, the 5th seed, was a 7-5 7-6(3) winner over Russian 30th seed Anna Kalinskaya, avenging a straight-sets loss earlier this month in Charleston.
Kalinskaya squandered 3 set points in the second set, after which Keys won 6 of the last 7 points in the tiebreak, saving 9 of 12 break points, while the Russian finished 0-for-4.
The 5th seed will play Donna Vekic, the 19th seed from Croatia, who upset Keys’ compatriot Emma Navarro, 4-6 6-3 6-2, in Saturday’s late-night match.
Vekic’s win over the World No 10 was her 2nd Top 10 win of the season, both coming over Navarro.
Only World No 1 Aryna Sabalenka has won more matches this season against seeded opponents, with 12, while Keys has won 11.
Keys became only the 3rd American to notch 100-plus match-wins in WTA 1000 events, after Serena and Venus Williams.
With 24 of those victories on clay, Keys passes Venus for the second-most wins by an American after Serena.
Keys had 4 aces to run her season’s total to 124, behind only Clara Tauson, at 159, and Noskova with 127.
17-year old Mirra Andreeva saw off a tenacious Magdalena Frech in 2 close sets on Saturday to make the Last 16 for a 3rd year in a row in Madrid
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In the top quarter of the lower half of the draw, Mirra Andreeva, the 17-year old Russian who is seeded 7th, took down Poland’s 27th seed, Magdalena Frech, 7-5 6-3, to reach the Madrid Last 16 for a 3rd straight year.
She had to be at her patient best, though, to hold off the Polish challenge, as Frech had pushed her the distance in the Australian Open 3rd-round in January.
It was a hard-fought contest that also tested Andreeva’s ability to keep a cool head, and, at times, the teenager appeared frustrated in the face of Frech’s relentless retrieval abilities, particularly in the tight opening set. However, she was able to shrug off her setbacks swiftly enough and advanced after an hour and 41 minutes.
“I was very, very nervous,” Andreeva said in her on-court interview. “I still struggle to find my best tennis in Madrid. [But I’m] super happy that I could manage to play consistent throughout the whole match.”
Lengthy exchanges featured angled slices, high topspin moon-balls, drop-shot attacks, and wrong-footing volleys from both, showcasing each’s aim to out-think rather than overpower the other.
Andreeva tended to get the better of these chess-like exchanges, claiming the first break for 3-2 and then saving 3 break points to move ahead to 5-3.
Frech was tough to shake off, though, managing to find a forehand pass off an Andreeva drive volley en route to leveling at 5-5, the point at which the youngster seemed most visibly distressed.
She gathered herself with a pair of superb games to close out the set, sealing her first set point with a deft volley.
Aided by a pair of ill-timed Frech double-faults, Andreeva broke first in the second, again for 2-1, with her service numbers rapidly improving.
Conceding just 4 points behind her delivery in the second set, Andreeva maintained her lead and broke Frech again for the match, finishing with a clean return winner, her 31st of the day.
Qualifier Yuliia Starodubtseva came from 2-6, 1-3 down to upset No 18 seed Liudmila Samsonova and set up a Last 16 meeting with Mirra Andreeva at the Mutua Madrid Open
Andreeva will face qualifier Yuliia Starodubtseva in the 4th-round, after the Ukrainian came from 2-6, 1-3 down to upset another Russian, No 18 seed Liudmila Samsonova, 2-6 7-6(2) 6-0, in 2 hours and 32 minutes, going from strength to strength with deft drop-shots and redirecting winners throughout the decider.
Starodubtseva advanced to the Last 16 of a WTA 1000 event for the second time in her career following her quarter-final run in Beijing last October.
Between Beijing and Madrid, Starodubtseva, though, was winless at WTA main-draw level and only snapped her 7-match losing streak this week here in Madrid.
